Rand Paul calls bulk surveillance ‘fundamentally unconstitutional’

United States Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) blasted the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs during an interview over the weekend by calling the NSA’s tactics “fundamentally unconstitutional.”

Sen. Paul, a devout libertarian and long-time critic of the NSA,
told Fox News Sunday host John Roberts that the Supreme Court
should weigh in on the ever-escalating scandal surrounding the US
spy agency’s practice of collecting vast troves of intelligence,
including data pertaining to American citizens.

More than two months after former intelligence contractor Edward
Snowden was first attributed with leaking documents to the media
showing the surveillance capabilities of the NSA, the topic
remains one of utmost contention among lawmakers and the public
alike. In the wake of Mr. Snowden’s latest revelation, though,
new questions are being raised with regards to what oversight
practices if any could be used to keep the NSA in check.

Last week, new documents attributed to Mr. Snowden showed that
the NSA violated its own privacy standards upwards of thousands
of times per year. Weighing in with Fox News, Sen. Paul suggested
there’s little this side of a Supreme Court decision that would
keep the NSA operating under the rules of the US Constitution if
it continues its current practices.

“I think that the president fundamentally misunderstands the
constitutional separation of powers because the checks and
balances are supposed to come from independent branches of
government,” Sen. Paul told Roberts. “So, he thinks that
if he gets some lawyers together from the NSA and they do a
PowerPoint presentation and tell him everything is okay, that the
NSA can police themselves. But one of the fundamental things that
our Founders put in place was they wanted to separate police
power from the judiciary power. So, they didn't want police to
write warrants -- and the NSA are a type of police. They wanted a
judiciary, an independent, open judiciary, responsive to the
people with open debate in public.”

“So, I think the constitutionality of these programs need to
be questioned and there needs to be a Supreme Court decision that
looks at whether or not what they're doing is constitutional or
not,” he said.

And although supposed oversight measures are already in place to
monitor the functions of the NSA, Sen. Paul said those
discussions are one-sided and leave little room for argument.

“If you were to go sit down in a room and the NSA tells you
why they're doing all these things correctly, you have no means
of challenging that. You have no means of alternative
information,” he said.

Referencing the latest Snowden leak showing how that oversight
has fallen short, Sen. Paul said that that information — and
undoubtedly much more — would never had been disclosed had an NSA
whistleblower not opened up. Even if the NSA is asked to
undergo further audits, however, the lawmaker cautioned that the
report leaked last week by Snowden suggests its best if an
outside source handles that operation.

“I think the whole program needs to be reviewed but it can't
be an internal audit,” Sen. Paul said. ““The only way to find
justice is you have to hear both sides. So, there really needs to
be a discussion from people who are a little bit more skeptical
of the NSA in an open court I think before the Supreme Court on
this -- on this program,” he added.

“I think it would be better with more oversight but there are
some things that they're doing that I fundamentally think are
unconstitutional.”

In particular, Sen. Paul suggested that the NSA’s habit of asking
telecom providers to hand over metadata records for millions of
customers on a regular basis does not fall in line with what
America’s forefather envisioned when they authored the
constitutional amendment that protects US citizens against
unlawful searches.

“Our Founding Fathers, when they wrote the Fourth Amendment,
they said a single warrant goes towards a specific individual and
what you want to look for. You ask a judge and you say John Smith
we think is doing this. We have probable cause to think that he's
involved with a crime and you get a warrant,” he said.
“The Constitution doesn't allow for a single warrant to get a
billion phone records. You know, they have a warrant that says,
we want all of Verizon's phone calls, all of AT&T's phone
calls, all of et cetera, et cetera, they basically I believe,
probably, are looking at all the cell phone calls in America
every day.”

Following the senator’s remarks, Rep. Peter King (R-New York)
dismissed his comments as a "grab bag of misinformation and
distortion.” Speaking to Roberts of the NSA’s spotty
oversight record, Rep. King said the instances of errors as
discovered in the leaked audit suggest that while thousands of
mistakes may happen annually, that figure is just a small
representation of everything that’s being collected.

"If you have a 99.99 percent batting average, that's better
than most media people do, most politicians do," King said.
"I have tremendous respect for Gen. [Keith] Alexander and the
whole NSA. This whole tone of snooping and spying we use, I think
it's horrible. I think it's really a smear and a slander of good,
patriotic Americans."

Both Sen. Paul and Rep. King have been reported to be considering
potential campaigns for the White House ahead of the 2016
presidential election.